Before the augmentation of the electric guitar and the use of synthetic materials, a guitar was defined as being an Fender Custom Guitars instrument having "a long, fretted neck, oblate timbered soundboard, ribs, and a collapsed back, most often with incurved sides". Instruments coincident to the guitar have been hip for at least 5,000 years.
The electric guitar was patented by George Beauchamp in 1936. Beauchamp co-founded Rickenbacher which used the horseshoe-magnet pickup. However, it was Danelectro that first produced electric guitars for the wider public.